Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

I'm all for transparency, but Janis Sartucci seems to have an ax to grind with MCPS.

As a teacher, I find her abrasive and ignorant.

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/

Is anyone familiar with her background?

[Anonymous]

Gee, looks like your union is having a bad day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020404421.html

[Anonymous]

Parents coalition is the group that got fees reduced

http://parentscoalitionmc.com/Guide_to_Fees.html

[Anonymous]

December 11, 2008

Contact: Josh Golin
(617.278.4172;
[e-mail])

For Immediate Release

Montgomery County Pulls
the Plug on BusRadio

Today, Montgomery County
Public Schools (MCPS)
decided to terminate their
relationship with BusRadio,
the controversial company
created to force children
to listen to commercialized
radio broadcasts on school
buses around the country.
MCPS’s decision came
after the Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) sent a letter to MCPS superintendent Dr.
Jerry Weast urging him to
end the use of BusRadio
on MCPS school buses.
Montgomery County had
been using BusRadio in a
number of school buses
on a trial basis. With 96,000 school bus riders,
Montgomery County would
have been BusRadio’s
largest school district. The
following is CCFC’s
statement on Montgomery
County’s decision:

The Campaign for a
Commercial-Free
Childhood commends
Montgomery County
Public Schools for their
decision to terminate their
relationship with BusRadio.
No school district should
turn their students over to
a company whose stated
goal is to “take student-
targeted marketing to the
next level” or force children
to listen to advertisements
on their way to and from
school.

CCFC also congratulates
the Parents Coalition of
Montgomery County for
their advocacy efforts and
for drawing attention to
BusRadio’s presence in
Montgomery County.
The events of the past
twenty-four hours
demonstrate once again
that when parents learn
the truth about BusRadio,
they want no part of it for
their children. We hope
that parents around the
country will continue to
utilize our
BusRadio resources –
and those of Obligation, Inc
– to keep their school
buses commercial-free.

The Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood
is a national coalition of
health care professionals,
educators, advocacy groups
and concerned parents who
counter the harmful effects
of marketing to children
through action, advocacy,
education, research, and
collaboration among
organizations and individuals who care about children.
CCFC supports the rights of
children to grow up – and the rights of parents to raise them – without being
undermined by rampant
commercialism. For more
information, please visit:
http://www. commercialfree

[Anonymous]

Here is more on the group

The coalition might be the best-known parent advocacy group in the region. Its members represent several constituencies, including parents of special education and gifted education students and fiscal watchdogs. The group's defining victory came this school year when the school system scaled back the fees charged to families for course materials.

Coalition leaders have drawn attention to the misuse of funds collected from students for activities, the broadcast of a commercial radio service on school buses and, with their "Weast Watch" blog, the travel habits of Weast and his lieutenants.

The Washington Post,

[Anonymous]

As a future Montgomery County parent hats off to Janis and keep up the good work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm all for transparency, but Janis Sartucci seems to have an ax to grind with MCPS.

As a teacher, I find her abrasive and ignorant.

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/

Is anyone familiar with her background?

As a current MCPS teacher, I love this group! Not all of us think the county should be spending $$$ on Promethan boards and artificial turf fields.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the "hats off to Parents Coalition" posters. I think they play a very valuable role in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents coalition is the group that got fees reduced

http://parentscoalitionmc.com/Guide_to_Fees.html

While the PCofMC thinks that getting fees reduced was a coup for the parents (nee tax payers), for down county schools it caused students to have to pay higher fees as previously they were either low or not required. Once fees had to be standardized, all schools have to charge the same. So the students who can afford the least lost out on that one. Oh, those sending their children to Green Zone schools in MCPS saved enough money to buy a daily latte or two for themselves and their children. Real tax savings there . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm all for transparency, but Janis Sartucci seems to have an ax to grind with MCPS.

As a teacher, I find her abrasive and ignorant.

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/

Is anyone familiar with her background?

As a current MCPS teacher, I love this group! Not all of us think the county should be spending $$$ on Promethan boards and artificial turf fields.

While I can agree with the fiasco conerning artifical turf, I find the Promethean Boards to be a great teaching tool that far supasses the limitations of a black board or overhead. Maybe you should get some training on incorporating critical inquiry with the Promethean Board.

If there's one in your room that you don't know how to use, please offer to move to a room without one. That way, a skilled teacher can make use of the Promethean board in the classroom in order to enhance student learning.

Way to better yourself, PP - I'm sure your PDP reflects your attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm all for transparency, but Janis Sartucci seems to have an ax to grind with MCPS.

As a teacher, I find her abrasive and ignorant.

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/

Is anyone familiar with her background?

As a current MCPS teacher, I love this group! Not all of us think the county should be spending $$$ on Promethan boards and artificial turf fields.

While I can agree with the fiasco conerning artifical turf, I find the Promethean Boards to be a great teaching tool that far supasses the limitations of a black board or overhead. Maybe you should get some training on incorporating critical inquiry with the Promethean Board.

If there's one in your room that you don't know how to use, please offer to move to a room without one. That way, a skilled teacher can make use of the Promethean board in the classroom in order to enhance student learning.

Way to better yourself, PP - I'm sure your PDP reflects your attitude.

My dislike of Promethean boards has nothing to do with my PDP and everything to do with overspending in this county for unnecessary items.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

While I can agree with the fiasco conerning artifical turf, I find the Promethean Boards to be a great teaching tool that far supasses the limitations of a black board or overhead. Maybe you should get some training on incorporating critical inquiry with the Promethean Board.

If there's one in your room that you don't know how to use, please offer to move to a room without one. That way, a skilled teacher can make use of the Promethean board in the classroom in order to enhance student learning.

Way to better yourself, PP - I'm sure your PDP reflects your attitude.

My dislike of Promethean boards has nothing to do with my PDP and everything to do with overspending in this county for unnecessary items.

You have displaced hostility. You should dislike the powers that be, not the technology itself.

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about Janis Sartucci other than that she was PTA cluster coordinator for Churchill. I think her blog can be very useful but I get a little tired of the tone. Personally I would like to have the option to pay fees for items we want the kids to have but that MoCo won't pay for. The PC doesn't speak for all parents in MoCo all the time.

[Anonymous]

I have two children in two different elementary schools. One LOVES the promethean board, but he has a very skilled and well trained teacher who's had one long enough to use and retain her skills. It's great for the class, but she's such a good teacher that I think she'd be successful without one.

The other child is in a school where there are only a few promethean boards. They are almost never used effectively. You can't blame the teachers -- they don't get enough time and space to use them and get good at them, and it's a school with high turnover for other reasons so there's always someone at the beginning of the learning curve.

My overall conclusion is that they are a nice-to-have but certainly not worth substituting other things for.

And Janis speaks forcefully in order to be heard. I admire her and the work she does.

[Anonymous]

The question is not so much do you love or not like Promethean boards, but, with the $14M the taxpayers are spending on them, (with no oversight, BTW), what else could your children have had in their classrooms? Like, for example, teachers? how about those of you whose children are being taught in storage closets, which came up at the BOE testimony? which would you rather have for your child? Promethean board or classroom? Those are the questions PCMC is asking. We should all be asking them.